Lacking ZZZzzz

Annie has been a night owl lately. She will go to bed at her normal time with minimal fuss, but 2am comes around and she is coming into my room. On my side of the bed. Waking me up (and not my husband.) Haven't figured out why both my children come to my side of the bed when they get up in the middle of the night. I am not closest to the door.

Anyway, so, I put Annie back to bed and attempt to go back to sleep. It usually takes a while before I can actually get to sleep again. I am not sure how long I have been trying to go to sleep when I hear the creaking of Annie's door opening. You have got to be kidding me. Since, I had turned her away from my room, I figured she was headed for Rebecca's. I was right. I caught her entering Rebecca's room wearing a headband over her eyes (like sunglasses), a Sleeping Beauty wand and a book of Bible stories. She obviously wasn't going in there to sleep. So, I catch her and take her back to her bed. She cries and I go back to bed. It was ten till 3 at this point.

Annie stays in her room just long enough for me to get to slumber land again when she is standing at my side of the bed again. So, giving up, I put her in bed with me. It takes her a bit to get comfortable. Annie attempts to talk and it is followed up by a SHH! Then she starts stroking my face. Come on how sweet, but annoying can you be and nearly 4am. I totally ignore her and actually get to sleep again. She finally gets the wiggles out and is out too.

7:30am rolls around when Rebecca rallies for the morning. Again to my side of the bed. She thinks that she needs in between Annie and I. She she manages to do that and then decides she doesn't want to sleep, she wants to watch cartoons in the living room. Meaning in order for her to do that I have to get out of bed, find the remote and wake up just enough to find something for her to watch. I told her to not come into my room and ask for breakfast. I told her that I will get her breakfast when I get up. Rebecca gave me an hour before she yells from the living room that she is hungry and wants breakfast. She did exactly what I told her. She did not come into my room to tell me she was hungry, she just yelled it. Hmmm....so I get up and that is the start to my day.

About Us

Well, I have been neglecting my blog. Obviously, since I have not posted anything since the end of July and we are close to the middle of August. I am in a writing slump. I am having trouble thinking of something worth while and interesting to write about. I just want it to be fun and interesting for my readers. Which by the way am thinking aren't too many. After all, I don't get many comments on my subjects.

Sure, I can always write about my two angels. That is always a hit with the family that actually reads my blog. So, here is a little bit about what they are into these days.

Rebecca, who is almost 4, is independent and head strong, just like her dad. Rebecca finished her swimming lessons and loved it. She moved up from her pre-school class to level 1. She is becoming quite a little swimmer. She seems to like to go underwater a lot. Rebecca just learned how to ride her big girl bike with training wheels. And she can actually steer and pedal at the same time. When it cools off a bit more, she will get more practice. I just enrolled Rebecca in pre-school. She starts September 2nd. Her class will be from 11:00-2:30, two days a week. I am really looking forward to that. It will be nice to have one on one time with Annie. I also enrolled Rebecca in a class that will teach her tap, ballet and rhythmic dancing. With her pre-school class schedule, I was unable to get her into tumbling, which she may be a little disappointed, but it is only for 8 weeks and then we can try it next time.

Annie, who is almost 2 1/2, is mellow, but following in her sister footsteps as far as the attitude thing goes. Annie just finished swimming lessons and will be promoted to the pre-school class next summer. Skill wise she was ready now, but I know she would not sit there and listen to her teachers while the other kids take their turns. Her favorite part of swimming lessons was jumping off the diving board and side of the pool. Seriously, she has no fear of the water. It was great. Annie likes to play with her baby dolls and loves to play with her big sister. The girls play pretty well together, not including the hitting that might go on.....we are still working on that. I enrolled Annie in a music class. She has taken this class before and really enjoys it. I also enrolled her in a mommy and me tumbling class.

Matt is enjoying his new position with his company. He is good at it and doesn't seem to miss being a Flight Paramedic. He is able to work from home, which is nice, however, we need an office where he can close the doors and not be interrupted by the girls. We are looking into moving to a bigger house. We will let you know what goes down with that situation as it comes up. Matt is becoming more corporate everyday. What I mean by corporate is he dresses up when he needs to go to work (dress shoes, ironed clothes, etc.), is a pro at texting (sometimes while driving), and has conference calls. It is good to see him like this. It truly fits.

Me....well, I take care of the house, kids and all the other stuff that fits in the "mom" category. I am looking forward to school starting to get back into a routine with the girls. Since, Matt will be home somewhat, I want to start working out again. I am tired of the "mom" body that I have acquired since having kids and am looking forward to being me again. Or at least a skinnier me. I try to keep the girls active without spending a ton of money. I think I have become quite thrifty and look for free or cheap things to do for entertainment. I am active in my mommies group and enjoy getting together, when my schedule permits, with other moms and letting the kiddos play. I look forward to going to church and get my spiritual fill. Church is even better now, that Matt is able to come every Sunday. I hated sitting alone when he had to work Sundays.

I love to write, so I will try to keep up with my blog as much as possible. I always wanted to be a writer (of some sort), so I will do some research and find topics to discuss.

A Kidless Weekend

Matt and I had our first weekend alone, without the kids, in four years. Yeah, I know, we don't get out much and really didn't want to impose and ask someone to watch our kids. Matt had a work dinner so we thought we would try to get someone to watch the girls. We asked our wonderful neighbors and they were available. That was so nice of them. Plus, I thought it would be easier on the girls if they had trouble sleeping at someone else's house, they could come next door and sleep in their own bed. It worked out well. Girls were really good and Kevin and Leah seemed to really enjoy the girls staying with them.

We left on Friday night and stayed in Eastland, TX. Then the next morning we got up and drove to Breckenridge, TX. Matt had to teach a class at 8 at the hospital. So, I sat in the class and read, filed my nails and just had an over all relaxing day without the constant whine I sometimes hear all day. Matt's class got out around noon. We got some lunch and drove to Temple, where the dinner was. It was a long drive and I wasn't looking forward to driving back home after the dinner was over.

So, we got to Temple, TX and stopped at a Starbucks, had some coffee and then got dressed in their restroom. We thought it would be kind of weird if we were to get dressed in the hotel bathroom without having a room. Anyway, so we got dressed up. We looked good. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of us all dressed up. Maybe next time. But we looked good. So, we did the dinner thing and left the hotel just before 10pm. We were on our way home. We didn't get home until midnight.

Leah put the girls to bed in their beds at home so we would not have to move them when we got home. They did good all weekend. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Below are the pictures of them the next morning. Aren't they cute! We did enjoy our time away but, were happy to be home with our babies. The girls were so wore out from the weekend they went to bed at 7 pm on Sunday night. It was nice.

I Miss My Friends

So, two of my friends that lived pretty close to me moved within a week of each other. They are not too terribly far, but far enough to not get together. It is sad and it seems like a very tragic end to a great friendship. Although we will always remain friends, I don't think we will see each other very often so, we will grow further and further apart and our kids will probably forget one another.

I am just not sure that I am willing to let these two friends go. It will be harder to get together, but we will have to all make an effort. We need to find common ground for all of us and meet as much as our busy schedules will allow, which may get a little tricky, since some of our kids are in school this year. Plus, we all are on a budget and gas prices seem to be breaking the bank these days. Yeah, this really isn't looking good, but I will do my best to meet up with my dear friends.

I met my two friends, one through the Hurst Rec. Center and the other through my mommies group. We really hit it off. They were just two of those people that you shared so much in common, that we were bound to be great friends. In fact, one of my friends and I went to the same college. And the other friend, her kids and my kids are exactly the same age. Her daughter is two weeks older than Rebecca and her son is four days younger than Annie. That is crazy. But that is the bond that I share with my friends.

I feel like I am writing a eulogy for my friends. I just miss my friends and hope that we can find enough time in our busy schedules to get together. It would be a tragedy to let this friendship end.

Moo, Moo, Oink, Oink, Cluck, Cluck, Up Chuck?

This is our freezer. It is full of meat and some veggies. Anyway, we went to this place called Country Meat Market. You can get a year supply of meat. We got beef, pork, chicken and fish. It is fresh and is "Choice" in the USDA grading system. Choice is a higher grade of meat than what you get at a regular grocery store. You can get Choice at places like Costco. Anyway, that is a lesson in itself.

We went on July 4th thinking we are going to get 400 lbs of meat at like $300. Boy, were we wrong. First, we got the down low of what they were all about. They took us (Matt, Rebecca, Annie and I) in the back where the beef is hanging from a chain that has several hooks on it and hangs from the ceiling. My first thought when I walked in the back is, I'm going to have to sterilize my shoes. There was some chunks of meat on the floor that had missed the trash can and the smell was not anything to write home about either. Matt is holding Rebecca and I have Annie, when the guy is explaining the different cuts and what we get in our bulk order. Well, lets just say that the stench of the place and the dead cow and pig hanging right there didn't help Annie any. Poor girl started dry heaving like she was going to barf all over the place. Annie did her first dry heave and I thought she had trouble swallowing the skittle that she was eating. Then she did it two more times in a row and I thought we are going to have a huge mess if I don't get her out of here. I am the type that if I see someone barf, I am most likely going to join you.

So, I told the guy that if I don't get out of here we are going to have a big mess and excused myself leaving Matt and Rebecca in the back. They guy finished and they came out and we discussed our options and asked questions on how everything works. Well, come to find out that it was going to cost us like $260 a month for a year. That is like a car payment to us. We weren't going to be able to do that. We were ready to walk out when the owner came out and said let see if I can make a better deal for you. So, he asked what can you spend a month? I said $100. He said let me see what I can do. He comes back out and said I can get you 270 pounds of meat beef for $116 a month. Okay, now that is more like it. On top of that he is throwing in 100 pork chops, ribs, bacon, 20 T-bones, 20 NY Strips, Angus brisket, chicken breasts, sausage, salmon, shrimp and veggies. Plus, he gave us a $100 discount and did not charge us the processing fee. Nice. So, we said okay and they started cutting up our meat to our specifications. Like our ground beef is in 1 pound packages and our steaks cut to 1 inch thickness. Makes it nice. Anyway, Matt goes in the back and starts writing as fast as he can on the packages what is inside. Anyway, it was done in like 20 minutes.

We got every cut of steak you can think of. We have like 30 pounds of ground beef. We have roasts coming out our ears. Every cut of the roasts, pork and beef. We are set for over a year. Clearly, by the picture there is no way we can eat all this meat in a year. It will be interesting to see how much we do go through.

We signed our papers and headed out the door with a year supply of meat in our van. The great thing about this is if there is a cut that we don't like or it gets freezer burn (which they guarantee for 18 months) we can take it back to their store and replace it pound for pound or cut for cut for free. That is great. Anyway, if we pay off our meat in 90 days it is interest free. Our full payment is going out tomorrow. Yay! This will save us time and money by having everything we need in our freezer right now. I am so glad we were able to do this. The people were so great and we plan on using them again when we need more meat. Overall, it was a really great experience and happy to report there were no barfing incidence. Oh, and the meat is really good too.

Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming in One Trip

Here are some pictures of the girls on our vacation. We left on May 31st and came back on June 21st. During those 2 weeks the girls got to travel through 7 states.

We spent our time visiting, going to the river and playing. There were so many people under one roof at my parents house in Blythe, CA. We had my brother Tyson, SIL Jenny, their kids, Emma, Gabriel and Isaiah, my other brother, Ryan, my cousin, Tonya, her husband, Rich, and their kids, Hartley, Andrew and Ella, my aunt, Glenda, my mom and dad, Matt, Rebecca, Annie and I. That is a lot of people. However, There was a only a couple of days when all of us were there. It was great to see all the kids play together. The oldest was 5 and the youngest was 1. My mom prepared a nice area for the kids to play with all the toys, but they never wanted to stay in that area.

We made it to the river twice while we were out there. My girls loved being in the water. It was very refreshing to go in and get wet since it was so hot outside. Wish we could have spent more time there. That is one of my favorite places.

The girls and I spent two weeks in Blythe visiting everyone and then spent a week in Idaho. It was nice to get away with just my girls and my mom. That is where the other states in the title come into play, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The girls traveled really well and we only lost the pacifier once. Yeah, I know, you thought we had broke Annie of the pacifier. Nope, she still gets it during nap and at night. One the airplane we thought it would help her ears, which I think it did. The entire 3 weeks we were gone I could not pry the thing out of her mouth. So, now I have to re-ween her. Lets just say it is going better this time around.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our vacation and at the end, are some pictures of our Memorial Day. All I have to say is it is good to be home and sleeping in my own bed.

This is Annie playing outside in Idaho.

Rebecca and Annie enjoying the great weather we had in Island Park, ID.

Rebecca and Annie visiting Grammy at her house in ID. The girls found the fake deer in the back yard. Annie was scared of them at first.

My beautiful Rebecca who doesn't want her pictures taken anymore, but I actually get some good one every once in a while.

Rebecca and Annie playing in the dandelions and pine cones.

Rebecca and Annie on their way to Yellowstone National Park. My mom's house is 25 miles away from the West Yellowstone, MT entrance.

Rebecca and Annie looking at the boiling mud pots in Yellowstone National Park. Rebecca is posing by the Spasm Geyser.

Grammy and her girls on posing on the dock by their house.

Rebecca and Annie wondering around in Idaho.

Annie and Rebecca riding on the tractor with Grampy.

Rebecca getting a great ride on Grampy's tractor.

All the kids had a good time on Grampy's tractor. My dad was totally loving this.




Memorial Day 2008

Before we went on our vacation we spent our Memorial Day with Papa Willis and Grammie Lin in Granbury, TX. As you can see by the pictures.....the girls had a great time. We brought Rebecca's bike out so Papa Willis could help her learn how to ride. Unfortunately, the chain was too tight and Rebecca was unable to pedal. But Papa Willis fixed the problem but Rebecca has not gotten a chance to try again.

After we left Granbury, we headed to San Antonio to buy a Jetta TDI for Matt. Since he got this great new position at work he thought he needed to get a new car to save gas money. He can go 700 miles on one tank of gas. Gotta love it.

The trip to San Antonio was just a quick trip to get the car. No fun was had while we were there. Maybe sometime in the near future we can take the girls back and go see the Alamo or not take the girls and have a nice weekend kid-free. My vote is for the 2nd one!

What did you say?

Okay, so we are out here in Blythe, California visiting family. We are having a great time.

On Monday, the girls and I go visit my mom at work. My mom takes us around to visit everyone in the office and some of her teacher friends. We go say "hi" to my 5th grade teacher, Marcella Thomas. She is a beautiful black woman. Anyway, Marcella tells the girls to come give her a hug and the girls go and give her a hug. Rebecca then told Marcella "you're black all over, aren't you?" What?!?! Marcella said, "Yes I am and you're light all over aren't you?" Rebecca then answered, "yes".

Anyway, I am glad it happened to Marcella instead of some random person that could have taken that the wrong way.